The BJP leader submitted the nomination papers to the District Electoral Officer and District Magistrate of Varanasi Ajay Kumar Upadhyay.

Photo: Murli Manohar Joshi with LK Advani

Murli Manohar Joshi went up to the collectorate to file his papers in an open truck followed by his entourage. He filed the papers in four sets as proposed by Mayor of Varanasi Kaushlendra Singh, former BJP MP Shankar Prasad Jaisawal, BJP MLC-Kedar Nath Singh and senior BJP leader Anant Dev Sharma respectively.

Joshi is presently is the first candidate to file papers from the Varanasi constituency for the 2009 General elections to the Lok Sabha.

Murli Manohar Joshi is known as a hardliner in the BJP, more in sync with the objectives of the RSS than most other leaders. He has had prime ministerial ambitions earlier, but LK Advani has conclusively overshadowed him in the lst couple of years and is now officially the NDA candidate for PM. The BJP and NDA has always been in two minds about Joshi, as on the one hand he was seen as supporting the cultural and education agenda of the RSS, while others found him an embarassment and regressive.

The polls in Varanasi will be held in the first phase of elections, on 16 April 2009. The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see polling in 123 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Meanwhile there is also a FIR that has been registered against the former minister for violating the model code of conduct by holding a meeting in Varanasi without prior permission. Murli Manohar Joshi is accused of of holding a meeting in front of the Company Garden gate, without prior permission of the district administration yesterday, police said. The FIR has been registered under section 144, as well as the model code of conduct.

Murli Manohar Joshi will have stiff competition from the BJP’s rebel legislator Ajay Rai who will contest on a Samajwadi Party ticket in these elections. And a third potential candidate in the fray in Varanasi is Mukhtar Ansari, a man with a criminal past who has quit the Samajwadi Party and will now be the candidate for Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).